Authorities widen Hyd road but leave electric pole in middle, public unhappy

When officials were questioned, they pointed fingers at each other.
Authorities widen Hyd road but leave electric pole in middle, public unhappy
Authorities widen Hyd road but leave electric pole in middle, public unhappy
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Irked at electric poles standing in the middle of a new road being laid in Hyderabad, a citizen has taken to social media in protest. 

The construction work has been going on at the Puppalaguda Radial Road number 5, which lies close to Hyderabad's Outer Ring Road (ORR), for close to two years.

The area has witnessed a population expansion over the past decade and is now home to several techies who work in the Cyberabad side of the city.

 "The work is being taken up on the road that leads from Shaikpet to Narsingi and involves both road widening, as well as a fresh layer of cement road. However, the work has been extremely slow, and is still going on, despite starting two years ago," says Ashok P, a resident of Puppalaguda.

Ashok is angry as the contractor assigned to the construction of the road, has not bothered to shift the electric poles, leaving them as they were.

 "When the road widening and laying is done if the electric poles are left in the middle of the road, what is the point? It becomes useless to widen the road," Ashok adds.

When he tweeted about the issue to Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (TSSPDCL), the organisation asked him to contact their local officers and provided him with the details.

 "However, when I contacted the official, he said that the issue did not come under his purview, and directed me to another officer. Another officer said it was the construction wing's job. After multiple calls, they finally told me it was the contractor's job to come up with an estimate and a proposal to shift the poles," Ashok says.

"Following this, the electricity department will release the funds. There is no inter-departmental coordination, and everybody is pointing fingers at someone else," Ashok rues. 

Ashok also says that authorities have already been notified of the delay in the project, as HMDA commissioner T Chiranjeevulu has already visited the place twice.

"The HMDA which is also supposed to do a part of the job, is very slow, despite an assurance made by Minister K T Rama Rao before the GHMC elections. Additionally, the quality of the Cement Concrete road is also very substantial," he adds.

Repeated attempts by TNM to contact the local authorities went unanswered.

During a visit to the area in August, Chiranjeevulu told the local media, "The radial road's total length is 5.5 km and we are looking at road work in 1.3 km. We have suspended the contractor as he greatly delayed the work. There was also some delay from our side because of land acquisition issues. However, we will clear that within 10 to 15 days."

 "This work should have been completed earlier but has resulted in a lot of trouble for local residents. We are also troubled by it. It has happened purely due to the contractor's negligence," he admitted.  

 When asked about the road widening works, he said, "Now, the work is progressing swiftly. We plan to finish everything within the next one month. We have also removed a sub-contractor for shoddy work. Additionally, there is some pipeline shifting and air valves lowering work being done by the HMWSSB. We have already allocated funds for those."

 "We are also shifting the electric poles, following which the contractor will lay the road. We are looking at September 10 as the deadline," he added.

When he was asked about the placement of the electric poles in the middle of the road in some places where the road has already been expanded, he said, "We are in the process of shifting these and they will be done within one month." 

 However, one month later, the work is yet to be done.

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